Elon Musk loses lawsuit against OpenAI


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A California jury handed OpenAI a win on Monday after it said SpaceX CEO Elon Musk waited too long to sue the artificial intelligence company.

The jury spent about 90 minutes deliberating and found that the statute of limitations barred Musk’s lawsuit, according to CNN. Musk sued OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, company president Greg Brockman, and the company in early 2024. He alleged that they “stole a charity” after it shifted to a for-profit company.

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Musk previously helped cofound and fund the company, giving $38 million, CNN reports. 

Trial timeline

The trial began on April 27 in Oakland, California, and showed the fallout between two Big Tech heavyweights. During testimony, OpenAI claimed it never promised to stay a nonprofit forever. They argued that Musk knew this and filed his lawsuit because he began to lose unilateral control over the company. 

The weeks-long trial included testimony from Musk and Altman, along with other major figures in the tech world, like Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. 

OpenAI painted Musk’s allegations as a way at undercutting its massive growth and prop up Musk’s own AI company xAI. Musk launched the company in 2023 as a direct competitor to OpenAI. 

Former OpenAI board members also testified during the trial, speaking about their decision to fire Altman as CEO in 2023. Altman returned to his position just days after.

During his testimony, Altman said he highly respected Musk before the issues began, saying it felt like he never came through on his promises. 

“I felt like he had abandoned us … jeopardized the mission, didn’t really care about the things I thought he cared about,” Altman said. “It’s been an extremely painful thing for me … to have someone that I respected so much not acknowledge that and continue to publicly attack us.”

A lawyer representing Musk said he plans to appeal the decision, according to The New York Times.


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Why this story matters

A jury ruling ends Elon Musk's legal challenge to OpenAI's for-profit structure, leaving the company's current business model legally intact for now.

OpenAI's structure upheld

The jury found Musk's lawsuit was filed too late, meaning OpenAI's shift away from a nonprofit structure faces no immediate legal reversal from this case.

Appeal keeps case open

Musk's lawyer said he plans to appeal, according to the New York Times, so the legal dispute over OpenAI's founding terms is not fully resolved.

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Do the math

Musk donated $38 million to OpenAI and sought roughly $150 billion in damages. OpenAI is valued at $852 billion after raising $122 billion from outside investors. Microsoft has invested over $100 billion in its OpenAI partnership and generated $9.5 billion in revenue from it as of March 2025. Greg Brockman's stake is worth about $30 billion and Sam Altman's net worth is estimated at over $3.5 billion.

History lesson

The tension between nonprofit missions and commercial pressures is not new in tech. OpenAI's hybrid structure — a nonprofit controlling a for-profit subsidiary — mirrors models used by other organizations, such as the Hershey Company, which is controlled by a charitable trust. However, the scale of AI investment has made this structure far more contested.

Policy impact

The verdict preserves OpenAI's current hybrid nonprofit-for-profit structure and clears the path for its planned IPO, which could value the company at up to $1 trillion. It also leaves unresolved broader regulatory questions about whether AI nonprofits can restructure into commercial entities without legal consequence.

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Sources

  1. CNN

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Key points from the Left

  • A jury ruled that Elon Musk waited too long to file his lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, dismissing claims of unlawful enrichment by Altman and others at OpenAI.
  • The court found Altman, co-founder Greg Brockman, and OpenAI not liable on all allegations, including claims involving Microsoft's role, based on statute-of-limitations grounds.
  • Musk sued in 2024 over OpenAI's shift to a for-profit model, a change discussed as early as 2017 and established by 2019 after he left the board in 2018.
  • The verdict came after a three-week trial featuring testimony from Musk, Altman, Brockman, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

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Key points from the Center

  • A jury in Oakland, California, rejected Elon Musk's claims against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, concluding three weeks of testimony in the high-profile lawsuit over the company's for-profit conversion.
  • Musk sued OpenAI in 2024, alleging executives "stole a charity" by abandoning its founding nonprofit mission despite his roughly $38 million donation intended for development "for the benefit of humanity."
  • OpenAI's legal team argued restructuring was necessary to compete with Google DeepMind, while also revealing Musk had previously pushed to fold the company into Tesla.
  • Musk's team sought $134 billion in "ill-gotten gains" and removal of executives, though District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers must now confirm the advisory jury's verdict.
  • The verdict arrives as both billionaires prepare companies for public markets; OpenAI recently raised $122 billion at a valuation of over $850 billion, while SpaceX, valued at $1.25 trillion, may publish its IPO prospectus this week.

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Key points from the Right

  • A federal jury ruled against Elon Musk in his lawsuit accusing OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman of abandoning OpenAI's nonprofit roots due to Musk's delay in filing the case.
  • Elon Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and left in 2018, later suing the company for creating a for-profit entity in 2019, which he claimed violated OpenAI's founding mission.
  • Musk sought the removal of CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman and demanded over $150 billion in damages.
  • OpenAI and Microsoft denied the claims, stating Musk was involved in early merger talks and suggested the lawsuit was intended to promote Musk's AI startup, xAI.

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Sources

  1. CNN